Campus News

UB to explore career paths for PhDs

By SUE WUETCHER

“We know that people with PhDs tend to have very high job satisfaction … But we do not have a good understanding of what those career trajectories actually look like.”

Graham Hammill, vice provost for educational affairs and dean

UB Graduate School

While a job in academia may be the most obvious career path for
those pursuing doctoral degrees, it’s certainly not the only
one. And to better understand and support the various career
opportunities open to those earning PhDs, UB will survey its PhD
students and alumni about their career aspirations and employment
as part of a national Council of Graduate Schools’ (CGS)
project.

A consortium led by UB and including the SUNY university centers
at Albany, Binghamton and Stony Brook is among the 29 institutions
selected as partners in the CGS’ PhD Career Pathways project
funded by the National Science Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation.

Other partners include a consortium of institutions from the
University of California system, as well as the University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill; the University of Wisconsin, Madison; and
Brown University.

These partner institutions will administer surveys to their
current doctoral students and alumni to gather data that will allow
the universities to analyze PhD career preferences and outcomes at
the program level, and help faculty and university leaders
strengthen mentoring, career services and professional development
opportunities.

The universities also will be able to use the data to provide
information on the career paths of PhD alumni to current and
prospective students to help them make more informed choices
regarding PhD programs.

“The Graduate School at UB is pleased to be selected to
participate in this nationwide initiative,” says Graham
Hammill, vice provost for educational affairs and dean of the
Graduate School. “For many years, educators have wanted a
better understanding of the career trajectories of doctoral
students.

“We know that people with PhDs tend to have very high job
satisfaction — both those who go on to hold academic
positions, as well as those who have careers outside of the
academy. But we do not have a good understanding of what those
career trajectories actually look like,” he explains.

“The results of this survey will give us a much clearer
picture, and in the long run will give us a solid foundation for
improving the overall quality of doctoral education nationwide, and
at UB.”

The project, adds SUNY Chancellor Kristina M. Johnson, will help
the system “better understand the career goals of our PhD
students, the types of opportunities they find upon graduation and
beyond, and the skill sets that they believe are particularly
important to finishing their doctorate, gaining their first
position and advancing in their career.”

“For my own experience, my PhD and postdoc education set
me on an amazing path across academic research, university
department and administrative leadership, senior experience at a
federal agency and starting my own business,” as well as her
current position as SUNY’s 13th chancellor, Johnson says.
“It has been an incredible experience so far, and one that I
know was positively influenced by my graduate
preparation.”

The surveys were developed by the Council of Graduate Schools in
consultation with senior university leaders, funding agencies,
disciplinary societies, researchers, and PhD students and
alumni.

UB will distribute the survey to current PhD students this fall
and to PhD alumni in spring 2018.